JDBC 4.0 adds new capabilities to Connections:

• LOB creation - New methods, createBlob() and createClob() let you create empty Blobs and Clobs, which you can then fill up before stuffing into a column.
• Ease of development - JDBC 4.0 introduces DataSet, a simple mechanism to iterate through a table. You obtain a DataSet by passing an annotated query to your Connection's createQueryObject method.
• Validity tracking - The isValid method tells you whether your Connection is still alive.